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Friday, August 10, 2012

Romney’s welfare lies meant to energize the Tea Party crowd

By Marc Jampole

The question for the day is why
a public figure lies when it’s so easy to refute the lie?

This question develops
naturally from the latest Romney fiasco—his accusation that President Obama has
loosened the work requirement for welfare. This accusation is such a blatant
lie that virtually every mainstream media outlet has covered it, with each
story explicitly stating that Romney is not telling the truth. Romney comes out
looking bad in stories in the The NewYork Times,National Public Radio,News & Observer,and CBS News, for example.

Make no mistake about it:
Romney did not commit another spontaneous faux pas, similar to offering to bet
$10,000 or making a snide, offhand remark about Olympic security. The campaign
actually thought this one out and made a conscious decision to go after the
President because his administration proposed giving individual states the
flexibility to change welfare work rules if they could come up systems that got
people off of welfare quicker. As with the health care law, the idea of giving states
flexibility on welfare requirements was a central core tenant of the Republican
Party for decades that Romney and Republicans now conveniently ignore for
political reasons. Instead, Romney avers that Obama wants to end the work
requirement for welfare, the lie that the mainstream media jumped right on.

Romney continues to repeat the
accusation in the face of the bad publicity, and with good reason. The same
people who believe the birther myth and the lie that African-Americans get a
disproportionate share of welfare and food stamp benefits will believe that
Obama has gutted the welfare work requirements. Romney is feeding the fires of
ignorance to make sure that these supporters—now part of the Republican
core—come to the polls in November.

But even as Romney plays to
this core group he weakens his case with independent voters. While many
independents would be incensed by a welfare system that didn’t have a work
requirement, they are irritated when one candidate tells a bald-faced lie. In
Romney’s case, the welfare lie not only helps to build the case for Romney’s
mendacity; it also builds the case for his campaign’s lack of direction and
maybe to the idea that Romney is a bit out of touch.

If it weren’t for the entertainment value, I’d be pleased that Texas Governor Rick Perry is foundering in the Republican presidential race. After all, Governor Perry, who is in an unprecedented fourth term as chief executive of the nation's second-largest state, still might get the Republican nomination for president. If that happens there’s no telling what the voters might be fooled into doing. Just look at how far George W. Bush got.